Huntress Doubles Down On VARs In ‘Huge’ Partner Program Expansion

The expansion to resellers comes as Huntress seeks to serve a wider range of customer sizes with its managed cybersecurity platform, Channel Chief Tuan Nguyen tells CRN exclusively.

Huntress is expanding its channel program to include reseller partners for the first time in its decade-plus history, as the managed security vendor targets a wider range of customer sizes for its next phase of growth, Channel Chief Tuan Nguyen told CRN exclusively.

With the goal of serving customers ranging in size from SMBs up to those just shy of the Fortune 1000, Huntress is now looking to enable VAR partners in addition to its broad MSP base, he said.

The updated Huntress Partner Program represents “the extension of our existing channel-first model,” said Nguyen, vice president for channels and alliances at Huntress.

“We’re expanding our ecosystem to work with the VARs and distributors [who have] a huge opportunity to come downmarket [into] the midmarket,” he said.

While Huntress has traditionally geared its go-to-market efforts toward MSPs and their SMB customers, the company’s managed cybersecurity platform has “always been an enterprise-grade product,” Nguyen said.

Meanwhile, as cyberattacks increasingly impact companies of all sizes, “there is a need for managed security” in the midmarket, he said.

Founded in 2015, Huntress over time has also expanded beyond its core managed EDR (endpoint detection and response) offering to deliver a broader platform with the help of partners. Huntress now provides managed versions of ITDR (identity threat detection and response), security awareness training and SIEM (security information and event management), as well.

Huntress has been seeing massive growth momentum, and “we have goals to continue at that kind of hyper growth over the next few years,” Nguyen said. “This VAR ecosystem is very critical to that.”

Partner Perspective

An executive at one solution provider partner that has already been working with Huntress, TrustedTech, applauded the vendor’s move to expand its focus to VARs and the midmarket.

Irvine, Calif.-based TrustedTech has worked with Huntress for the past year and has seen strong interest from customers, according to Ryan Sobh, national sales manager at TrustedTech.

Now with the formalized reseller program from Huntress, the solution provider expects to be able to accelerate growth with the vendor, Sobh said.

“We can be strategic about it,” he said. “I can work better with Tuan and his team, and get an actual go-to-market strategy so that we can go and spread the word.”

Program Differentiators

The expansion of Huntress Partner Program follows the company’s hiring of Nguyen, a security channel veteran, in October. Prior roles for Nguyen included channel executive positions at Blackpoint Cyber, ExtraHop and Palo Alto Networks.

The three-tier partner program from Huntress will include benefits such as strong margin, MDF (market development funds) and lead-sharing, according to Nguyen.

“We have an abundance of leads, which we can now use as currency to really accelerate this channel motion,” he said. “Up until this point, we haven't had this VAR ecosystem [and couldn’t] effectively share those leads with this community.”

Another key differentiator for the new program is that Huntress is looking to break from the traditional channel model of linking potential margin to the partner’s tier, Nguyen said.

Instead, compensation for VAR partners will be related to the value of the role that the reseller played in the deal, he said. That means rewarding the partner based on how they actually contributed—whether that meant sourcing, influencing or fulfilling the deal—rather than compensating companies simply based on their size and tier, Nguyen said.

“If you’re a small partner or a large partner, if you're bringing us a deal and you truly are partnering with us, we shouldn't differentiate that pricing,” he said. “Because it's the same valued engagement that you're providing to us.”